Yesterday evening, StoryWeaver achieved a new milestone by adding the one hundredth language to the platform! The team had been keeping an eye on the language counter on the StoryWeaver homepage for the last couple of days as it teetered precariously on 99.

When we launched StoryWeaver two years ago with 800 stories in 24 languages, we really couldn't predict the tremendous reception the platform has had, not just in India but around the world. Today, with over 5000 stories in 100 languages, StoryWeaver is truly a global repository of multilingual stories. And the thing that makes us happiest is that over 40% of the new languages added to the platform have been at the request of YOU, our amazing community!

Once we shared the happy news on Social Media, congratulatory messages started coming in! Here are some of them:

N.Chokkan, Translator and Reviewer

"Thrilled to hear about StoryWeaver hitting the magic 100 (in terms of number of languages). This is a huge milestone in their journey to make every story available to every child in the world. Very happy to be part of this great project in a small way, and looking forward to 100s of more languages and 1000s of new stories, more smiles!"

Vibha Lohani, Writer, Translator and Storyteller

"A HUNDRED LANGUAGES! Wow ... This is remarkable. I came across StoryWeaver a little over a year back and fell in love with the platform as a mother as well as a writer and storyteller. Over the last year, I witnessed the team give a wider reach to the beautiful stories written by eminent authors and community writers by including various languages into the platform. With so many languages dying due to ignorance and neglect, touching the 100 languages milestone is an achievement worthy of applaud. Keep up the good work StoryWeaver!"

Tanvi Bambolkar, Writer and Translator

""It is a huge milestone for a platform that is so inclusive and always ready to accept and adopt the new. StoryWeaver is taking tales from various languages to kids speaking and reading only one language. I am sure it is also helping the kids to learn new languages and new cultures. Like one of my students learnt the Tamil word 'Kottavi' when his mother tongue is Marathi. This will only encourage them to learn new words and get in touch with newer world. Hundred languages, hundred cultures!"

Madhubala Joshi, Writer, Translator and Reviewer

"This is exhilirating, great news! May our clan of languages and readers, translators,illustrators, editors grow! May every child, everywhere have access to books, fun and joy and eventually knowledge."

Sanghamitra Ghosh, Writer, Translator and Reviewer

"No one can ever forget the magic of stories, fables and fairy tales that we hear and read as children. Working for Story Weaver put me back in touch with that wonderfully whimsical world. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that now so many more kids can be a part of this world of wild imagination and possibilities. Happy 100 StoryWeaver."

A BIG thank you from the bottom of our heart to each and everyone of you who has been with us each step of the way, and believes just as passionately as we do in the Pratham Books mission of 'A Book in Every Child's Hand.'

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Last year, we wrote about Tenzin Dhargyal and how he and group of committed teachers at the TCV School, Suja, Himachal Pradesh were translating stories to Tibetan on StoryWeaver. The passionate educators have till date translated over 60 books to Tibetan on the platform. Tenzin had written to us about how he and his colleagues were keen to print some of the books and place them freely in libraries and reading rooms across the region. 

Last week we were overjoyed to receive this photograph from Tenzin!

We wrote to him and asked him to tell us more about the project. Over to Tenzin! 

"We have printed more than 5 thousand copies of two books which will be distributed freely in all the Tibetan school libraries and reading rooms in the region. Students will have full access to these books in the libraries and already love the books very much. In fact, the more books they have, the happier they are to see and read them! Teachers and librarian can also plan and do activities with the books. My colleagues and I are also planning to create our own stories on StoryWeaver and there is much  interest in exploring ways in which we can use the platform. If you look at our Tibetan section, there are 68 books now. We started with just one!  Thank you for adding the Tibetan language to StoryWeaver." 

It's wonderful to see how educators and language champions are using StoryWeaver to create a repository of stories in languages the children they work with are fluent in! It's especially rewarding to see them find ways to take these translations into classrooms!

If you're using StoryWeaver in your classroom and have a story to share write to us at [email protected] and we'll feature you on our blog!

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Khyati Datt, a member of our outreach team writes about our recent workshop in Nashik with senior teachers of the SNS Foundation.

Our recent StoryWeaver workshop took us to the picturesque town of Nashik. Senior teachers from 6 different states gathered for the annual meet of the SNS Foundation, where they exchanged ideas, celebrated each other’s achievements and discussed the long term goals of the foundation.

A day before the workshop, our team was introduced to the teachers in Mumbai and we were happy to learn that they were as excited to explore the StoryWeaver platform as we were to share it with them. The 3 hour drive to Nashik provided us the opportunity to interact with them in a relaxed space and understand their context better.

After a hearty breakfast the next day, everyone assembled for the workshop. The teachers shared highlights from their last one year and lauded each other on their achievements. We started the workshop with an ice breaking activity and moved on to a storytelling session. They were more than willing to share their experiences and ideas around using books with children. The teachers responded enthusiastically to using StoryWeaver in their classrooms. After a brief exploration of the platform, they went on to the task at hand, which was to search for books on the platform on the given themes. All teachers tried their hand at looking for content that they could possibly use with their students too. The teachers then shared the stories they had found and how they might use them in their classrooms.

A satisfying lunch later, we moved on to discussing how they could use the platform to translate and create stories. They tried their hand at creating stories in their mother tongue and were excited about sharing this with their students back home. We got some really great stories and the teachers loved sharing their thought behind the story and presenting it in front of all of us. What was really impressive about this workshop was that the participants created original stories in 5 different languages- Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, English and Marathi.

The senior teachers gave us a great response and were happy to know that they could use wordless stories, flashcards, spotting books and a lot more resources from StoryWeaver in their classrooms. We discussed what students liked to read and how that could be used to motivate them academically as well.

As we wrapped up the workshop, the participants shared their thoughts with us on how they plan on using the platform and combining stories with curriculum. As Damayanti, who leads the CSR efforts of SNS Foundation, later told us, “there’s so much more we can do in our classrooms through StoryWeaver and we can’t wait to get started.” The participants were patient and interacted with us throughout the session, for which we’re thankful to them!

A big thank you also to the SNS Foundation for giving us the opportunity to interact with the teachers and their consistent support.

If you are interested in hosting a similar workshop for your organisation, drop us an email on [email protected]

 

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